Brain Condition from Bose and Sony Noise Canceling?! 🤔 (BBC Report)
Among other brands, I’m a big user of Sony and Bose noise cancelers, but according to the BBC, hearing issues in young people have been linked to the use of active noise canceling headphones. Issues which originate in how the brain processes sound.
It’s called APD, or auditory processing disorder. People with APD experience things like extreme irritation from sudden loud noises, and not being able to pinpoint accurately the source of human voices. So for example, if there’s a group of people around, and someone comes up from behind and speaks to a person who has this problem, they can’t tell if it’s someone from behind or from the sides. And they may get overstimulated from everyday sounds that we’re used to, such as beeps from a barcode scanner.
Credits: BBC
The Headline
APD sounds scary, but like with almost everything with the BBC, actually I got a little angry reading the article because clearly, there is no direct evidence that APD can be caused by noise canceling headphones. There aren’t even proper studies about it! Basically the article provides various examples of audiologists seeing an increase in the number of youngsters with hearing issues. Young people like 25 year old Sophie, who is diagnosed with APD, and who wears noise canceling headphones for up to 5 hours a day. Hey, there may be a link between APD and noise canceling, or maybe there’s no link. Since there are no studies, no one really knows at this point if noise canceling does cause any physiological changes to the brain, or how noise canceling affects hearing ability.
My Personal Experience
What we do know is that we humans develop our hearing skills way into our late teens, and several factors could possibly influence this development. Now, just a bit of a backstory. I’ve got very good hearing. I’m very sensitive to human voices, and it’s probably because I grew up in a home where everyone’s always screaming at each other.
But what if, while my hearing ability was developing, I was living in a world of silence, with prolonged isolation from everyday sounds which is exactly what noise canceling headphones do? It’s very possible that I may never develop that directional sensitivity, or tolerance, to sounds around me.
If some studies can prove this, this raises more questions like, how long should teens use noise canceling headphones, and at what age? Should children be banned from it? But like the article says, more studies need to be done.
Living in Noise
As far as I’m concerned, I’m still going to use noise canceling headphones like the Bose QC Ultra because noise canceling is for hearing protection. It’s the main reason why I don’t have much hearing loss at my age, because I’ve barely had to raise the volume of my music to beat the overwhelming noisiness around me. I live in Singapore, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and every mall I go to there’s tons of people. Without noise canceling, I might have to raise the volume to 70 or 80%, but with noise canceling I can listen perfectly well at 50%. And I’m very careful about noise levels.
My Thoughts on ANC
I barely ever go to the clubs. I don’t go to concerts, and if I do, I bring some noise canceling buds with me, just in case. This is why even though I’m 40, my hearing is still good enough to review audio. So for me, the benefits of noise canceling far outweighs the ‘possible’ side effects. But what do you think? Are you still going to use your noise canceling headphones as before? Comment below.
The BBC Article - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgkjvr7x5x6o
NBC Report - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAwrJtDhyYg&t=0s
